Declamations, Volume II: Controversiae, Books 7-10. Suasoriae. Fragments (Loeb Classical Library) Book

From Homer, Ovid, Xenophon, Stendhal, and Balzac, to Defoe, Dickens, Conrad, Pasternak, and Hemingway, Calvino, with fascinating insight gives, his take on these writers, among others, as to why their 'classics' are precisely just that: classics.
Calvino resounds with a deep sense of wonder, and writes wholeheartedly in a chirpy unpretentious manner, of which, it's clear to see just what his favourite classics meant to him. He lays out his reasoning in fourteen key points at the start of the book before we actually get to writers.

Three for example are -

'We use the word "classics" for those books that are treasured by those who have read and loved them; but they are treasured no less by those who have the luck to read them for the first time in the best conditions to enjoy them,

'The classics are the books that come down to us bearing upon them the traces of readings previous to ours, and bringing in their wake the traces they themselves have left on the culture or cultures they have passed through'

'A classic is a book that comes before other classics; but anyone who has read the others first, and then reads this one, instantly recognizes its place in the family tree'


Some of the essays on offer are only a few pages long, while others are more expansive, and while is it was great reading of the writers mentioned above, my particular interest was with fellow Italians - Cesare Pavese, Eugenio Montale, and Carlo Emilio Gadda.
Calvino wrote some superb stuff on Montale & Gadda, but to my disappointment, no sooner had I started reading his thoughts on Pavese (one of fave writers), it was all over in a flash, which for me, was a shame. It maybe didn't help that I hadn't read some of the famous classics he was referring to. The likes of - The Odyssey, Robinson Crusoe, Our Mutual Friend, and The Charterhouse of Parma still have yet to sit comfortably in my lap. There is a good chance they won't ever end up there either. As who in their right mind can say they've read every single classic on the planet!


These literary essays were thought-provoking, invigorating, and a real pleasure to read, but I'm going for four stars over five because some of them were simply just too short.